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Jon M. Huntsman

Billionaire Jon Huntsman, Sr. has ridden the ups and downs of chemicals business over the past four decades, nearing bankruptcy at one point and later suing a private equity firm that reneged on a deal to acquire his company. But for more than 20 years, the four-time cancer survivor has also been busy drumming up support for cancer research. He’s given at least $400 million since 1999 to establish the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Late last week, he upped that amount by $100 million – about $50 million of which is coming from him.

Huntsman realized that not nearly enough research is being done on children’s cancers, so he has spearheaded the construction of a new research building for children’s cancer at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. He convinced three other parties to contribute what amounts to roughly $50 million: Intermountain Healthcare, which runs a number of hospitals in Utah; the Mormon Church, of which he is a member; and the Utah state legislature. The Mormon Church is circling back to its history with the donation; it opened a children’s hospital in Utah over 100 years ago, Huntsman explained. Construction of the new building is slated to begin in 2014.

Why focus on children’s cancers? “HCI in a recent study showed that for a child diagnosed with cancer, the risk of siblings getting cancer is double that of normal populations,” Huntsman told me on the phone the other day. “It raised a question in our minds. What happens to their siblings? What happens to children with cancer when they reach teenage and adult years? Does it reoccur? What happens to their children? Do their odds of getting cancer go up? Nobody knows these answers.”

Huntsman, whose parents both died of cancer, proudly told me that Huntsman Cancer Institute has established itself as one of 21 comprehensive cancer care centers in the U.S. Before it was created, there was no other leading cancer research hospital in the intermountain West. “I’m really pushing forward to make this the finest center in the world,” he added.

The funding for the new center, to be called the Primary Children’s and Family Research Center, comes amid a drop in cancer research funds from the National Institutes of Health, Huntsman lamented. “Money allocated by the government is dramatically lower than it has been in 50 years,” he said. The solution? He lobbies Senators in Washington and bankers on Wall Street, and he urges the private sector and wealthy individuals to follow his lead. Said Huntsman: “I get so enthused. Senators see me coming and close their doors. People tell me, ‘Jon, all you ever talk about is cancer.’”

The 76-year-old does, however, talk about other things. As executive chairman of chemicals firm Huntsman Corp, which has operations in 75 countries, Jon Huntsman regularly travels the globe for business. It’s been a banner year for $11 billion (revenues) company, which announced in September that it would spend $1.1 billion to buy the titanium dioxide pigment business of Rockwood Holdings. Investors seemed to like the deal, driving Huntsman Corp. stock to the highest it’s been since May 2008. That jump, plus a rise in the value of real estate holdings that Jon Huntsman has in Idaho and Utah, puts Huntsman back among the ranks of the world’s billionaires.

Better business for him means more money for his charitable endeavors. Huntsman says the profits of every business except Huntsman Corp. – he’s got two private equity firms in addition to the real estate – get put into the Huntsman Cancer Institute. He has already given more than $1. 2 billion away over his lifetime, and has signed on to the Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Giving Pledge.

His larger vision is to make the Huntsman Cancer Institute research central for a network of hospitals around the world. “There’s no need to have multiple research centers. Then we don’t have to replicate hundreds of millions of dollars in cost,” he explained. His idea is to make the institute in Salt Lake the hub to train teams of doctors and hospitals around the world, and share the research HCI does. There’s a project going on in Mexico now and he aims to have more teams ready to train others. “It’s the future of the solution to cancer globally,” said Huntsman. “People cannot afford the huge expenses in research.”